An epic personal quest to discover the remarkable secrets of the world’s greatest runners.
After years of watching Kenyan athletes win the world’s biggest long-distance races, from the Olympics to big city marathons, Runner’s World contributor Adharanand Finn set out to discover just what it was that made them so fast – and to see if he could keep up.

Packing up his family (and his running kit), he moved from Devon to the small town of Iten, in Kenya, home to hundreds of the country’s best athletes and arguably the running capital of the world. Once there he laced up his shoes and ventured out onto the dirt tracks, running side by side with Olympic champions, young hopefuls and barefoot schoolchildren. He ate their food, slept in their training camps, interviewed their coaches, and woke up at 5am to do hill workouts. And at the end of it all, there was his dream, to join the best of the Kenyan athletes in his first marathon, an epic race through lion country across the Kenyan plains.
Both an investigation and a personal journey, Running with the Kenyans is for anyone who’s ever wondered why the Kenyans are so fast – and what they might teach us.

‘I’ve seldom read a better account of the exhilaration of running…what gives Running with the Kenyans its special appeal is Finn’s charm … He’s unusually engaging company both on and off the track.’ EVENING STANDARD